Cops who shot resident and one of their own won't face charges, says CCRB
LOWER MANHATTAN (PIX11) -- Almost five years to the day that he was shot and killed during a police stop, the five police officers involved in Antonio Wiliiams's death will not face any disciplinary charges.
That was the decision of the Civilian Complaint Review Board on Tuesday.
The members made the declaration to the family of Williams, who had been waiting for a cab in the Edenwald section of the Bronx when he was approached by plainclothes officers on the night of September 29, 2019.
On Tuesday, his family members spoke out, minutes after learning of the CCRB's decision. They were not pleased, to say the least.
"What I was hoping for was accountability and cops being fired," said Shawn Williams, Antonio's father, at a news conference outside of CCRB headquarters on Church Street. "What we got, what we received," he continued, "[was] the cops got a pass."
The family and their attorney went on to say that they'd learned that a CCRB investigator who'd reviewed their case had recommended that criminal charges be pursued against the five police officers involved, but the board itself decided against taking action.
"[That] shouldn't happen. It shouldn't," said Williams, the father. "Cops should be held accountable for every infraction."
The shooting also resulted in a police officer, Brian Mulkeen, being fatally shot.
Williams had been waiting for a cab when plainclothes officers, including Mulkeen, stopped him on the street. Mulkeen's body camera recorded the encounter. It shows Williams running away, and Mulkeen pursuing him. They struggled, and the five other cops got involved. Fifteen gunshots were fired, killing both Officer Mulkeen and Williams.
His stepmother, who'd raised him from the age of eight, reacted at the Tuesday news conference.
"This is very disturbing," she said. "I don't understand how the CCRB did not take into consideration the actual footage and the evidence that was there."
According to the family, the bodycam video shows that before Antonio Williams started running away, there was no indication that Williams needed to be stopped.
David Rankin, the attorney for the Williams Family, said that police were in violation of the laws they're charged with enforcing.
"You need to have some indication that a crime is being committed," he said, regarding the activity captured on bodycam video, "and what they have is a guy leaning against a mailbox."
Williams was found to have had a gun on his person at the time of the incident, but it was never fired, according to the NYPD investigation.
The family has a civil suit pending against the NYPD over what happened. They and their attorney said that they're now considering whether or not to appeal Tuesday's decision by the CCRB to not pursue charges against the officers involved.